Matabe-e Iwasa: The patriarch of Ukiyo-e

Matabe-e Iwasa (Matabe-e, or Matabei=又兵衛=first name and Iwasa=岩佐=family name) was born in 1578 as a son of Murashiga Araki, who was a famous military commander (Samurai) in 16c. Iwasa has spent his childhood in the “Sengoku” period, a chaotic and bloody time before Edo period. He was separated from his father when he was 2 years old, and lived in Kyoto with his mother, where he worked in the emperor palace and had educations including drawing.

Iwasa is often prized as the patriarch of Ukiyo-e. His works are also regarded as the origin of “Gekiga (Manga)”. These appraisals are stemmed from the “story nature” and the “dynamic nature” of his works.

Iwasa has particularly drawn scenes of shibari in exact details, which intrigues us, kinbaku lovers. In the first picture (from Picture Scroll of Zyoururi, 17c), we can see a Hojōjutsu-type shibari. Also, in the second picture (from Picture Scroll of Yamanaka Tokiwa, 17c), village people were tying corpses of warriors. Look at their ropes. They folded Asanawa double up as we do now.

Most of his works are designated as important cultural properties by Japanese government.

Related

Comments

Ugo (aka Kotake, コタケ、小竹) has founded SMpedia on Nov. 2009, which is a Wiki-type dictionary about Japanese Kinbaku. His interests range from the past and current Kinbaku-shi to historical background that has given birth to Showa SM culture in Japan. Daily twittering about short history of Japanese Kinbaku culture can be read in @SMpedia in Twitter or ugo.smpedia in Facebook (in Japanese).

Kinbaku Today was founded in 2014 to promote kinbaku, the art of Japanese erotic rope bondage, to the Western-speaking world.
Since its inception, Zetsu has served as the founding editor for the site, publishing contributions from authors in the US, Europe, Australia, and Japan.
The goal of the site is to provide a forum where people can read announcements about events, books, and video releases, read interviews with Japanese bakushi and models, study tutorials, view galleries of both Western and Japanese rope artists, and learn more about the history of the art of kinbaku.